Software Alternatives & Startups

Octoparse VS Public API

Compare Octoparse VS Public API and see what are their differences

Octoparse

Octoparse provides easy web scraping for anyone. Our advanced web crawler, allows users to turn web pages into structured spreadsheets within clicks.

Public API

Discover, compare, and integrate public APIs using real-time health monitoring, OpenAPI documentation, and live availability signals.

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Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Octoparse seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 3 times since March 2021.

social mentions
3 vs 0
Web Scraping popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 13

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Octoparse
PAP
Public API
Website octoparse.com public-api.org
Pricing —
Listed in

About Octoparse and Public API

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Octoparse
PAP
Public API

Extract web data in 3 steps Enter website URL you'd like to extract data from Click on the target data to extract Run the extraction and get data

Read more about Octoparse

No description of Public API yet.

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Octoparse 5 features
PAP
Public API 5 features
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Octoparse offers a drag-and-drop interface, which makes it accessible even for users without any coding experience. This lowers the learning curve significantly.
  • Customizable Workflows
    The tool provides various options for customizing data extraction workflows, allowing users to tailor the extraction process according to their specific needs.
  • Cloud-Based Platform
    Octoparse runs in the cloud, enabling users to execute and schedule scraping tasks without the need for local resources, thus saving time and computational power.
  • Automatic IP Rotation
    Automatic IP rotation helps to prevent IP bans and CAPTCHAs, making the scraping process more efficient and reducing the risk of getting blocked by websites.
  • Data Export Options
    The platform offers various data export options, such as CSV, Excel, HTML, and JSON. It can also directly integrate with databases and APIs for seamless data transfer.

Possible disadvantages

  • Pricing
    While Octoparse offers a free plan, the advanced features and higher extraction limits are only available in the paid plans, which can be expensive for individual users and small businesses.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Despite its user-friendly interface, mastering Octoparse's advanced features and capabilities can still require a steep learning curve for some users.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users have reported occasional performance issues, such as crashes and slowdowns, particularly with larger data extraction tasks.
  • Data Accuracy
    In some instances, the extracted data may have accuracy issues, requiring manual verification and cleaning, which can be time-consuming.
  • Limited Customer Support
    Customer support can be limited, especially for users on the free or lower-tier plans, making it difficult to resolve complex issues promptly.
  • Free to Use
    Public API is completely free, making it accessible to developers of all levels without any financial barrier to entry. This is particularly beneficial for hobbyists, students, and those working on personal projects.
  • Comprehensive Directory
    The platform provides a well-organized directory of hundreds of free public APIs across numerous categories such as animals, finance, weather, games, and more, making it easy to discover useful APIs for various projects.
  • Simple and Clean Interface
    The website offers a straightforward, easy-to-navigate interface that allows developers to quickly browse, search, and filter APIs by category, HTTPS support, CORS availability, and authentication requirements.
  • Open Source
    The project is open source, meaning the community can contribute to it, suggest new APIs, report issues, and help maintain the directory, ensuring it stays up-to-date and relevant.
  • Useful Metadata
    Each API listing includes helpful metadata such as whether it supports HTTPS, requires authentication, and supports CORS, which helps developers quickly assess if an API meets their technical requirements before diving deeper.

Possible disadvantages

  • No Quality Assurance
    The platform acts as a directory and does not verify or guarantee the reliability, uptime, or quality of the listed APIs. Some APIs may be outdated, broken, or poorly maintained without any indication on the listing.
  • Limited API Details
    The listings provide only basic information about each API. Developers often need to visit the actual API documentation separately to understand endpoints, rate limits, response formats, and other critical details.
  • Outdated Listings
    Some APIs listed on the platform may no longer be active or may have changed their terms, endpoints, or availability. The directory doesn't always reflect the current status of every listed API in real time.
  • No User Reviews or Ratings
    The platform lacks a community feedback system such as user reviews, ratings, or usage statistics, making it harder for developers to gauge the real-world reliability and usefulness of a listed API before committing to it.
  • Limited Search and Filtering
    While basic category browsing is available, the search and filtering capabilities are relatively limited compared to more advanced API marketplaces. There is no ability to filter by popularity, response speed, or data format, for example.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Octoparse
PAP
Public API

Overall verdict

  • Octoparse is generally considered a good tool for web scraping, particularly for those who want to extract data without deep technical knowledge. Its ease of use, combined with advanced features, make it a strong choice for users across different sectors. However, restrictions on the free version and occasional complexity in dealing with dynamic websites may require consideration.

Why this product is good

  • Octoparse is a powerful web scraping tool that is especially good for non-programmers due to its user-friendly interface. It offers features like point-and-click UI, pre-set scraping templates, cloud-based data extraction, scheduling, and API access. These features make it accessible for users who need to collect and analyze web data without writing code and ensure it can handle a variety of tasks from market research to competitive analysis.

Recommended for

    Small to medium-sized businesses, marketing professionals, data analysts, researchers, and anyone needing to automate data extraction tasks without investing heavily in technical resources or hiring developers.

Overall verdict

  • Public API (public-api.org) is a useful directory and aggregator site that helps developers discover free and public APIs across many categories, but it is a curation/listing service rather than an API provider itself, so its value depends on the quality and reliability of the third-party APIs it links to.

Why this product is good

  • Offers a centralized, searchable directory of numerous free and public APIs across diverse categories
  • Saves developers time by aggregating API options instead of searching individually across the web
  • Often includes brief descriptions, categories, and links to documentation for quick evaluation
  • Useful for discovering lesser-known or niche APIs that might not be found through mainstream searches
  • Generally free to browse and use as a discovery tool

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to quickly find free or public APIs for a project
  • Students and hobbyists exploring API integration for learning purposes
  • Startups seeking cost-effective third-party API options during early development
  • Researchers or hackathon participants needing rapid access to varied data sources
  • Anyone wanting a starting point for API discovery rather than a guaranteed production-grade API provider

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Octoparse 2 videos + Add
PAP
Public API 0 videos + Add

Create your first scraper with Octoparse 7 X

More videos

  • - Web Scraping Amazon Products with Octoparse - Basics (PSC5)

No Public API videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Octoparse
PAP
Public API
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using Octoparse and Public API. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Octoparse 5.0 · 1 review
PAP
Public API no reviews yet

We have no reviews of Public API yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Octoparse 3 mentions
PAP
Public API 0 mentions
  • Thingiverse.com
    Octoparse.com might work, they have a very nice interactive tool + 14 day free trail. Source: almost 5 years ago
  • How to Scrape and Export Products Data from Aliexpress
    These are no-code solutions for scraping websites. You don’t need any technical knowledge to scrape Aliexpress using these tools. Using advanced AI-powered click and scrape tools, you can get started scraping within seconds either... Source: over 5 years ago
  • Amazon web scraping
    I have always been able to extract data without any problems with Octoparse. It is also a very easy to use tool. Source: over 5 years ago

Tracking Public API since Jan 2026.

Alternatives to Octoparse and Public API

When comparing Octoparse and Public API, you can also consider the following products.